May 13, 2002May 13, 2002
Some in Administration Grumble as Aide's Role Seems to Expand
By RICHARD L. BERKE and DAVID E. SANGER


WASHINGTON, May 11  Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, is 
expanding his White House portfolio by inserting himself into the debate over 
how to deal with the Middle East, trade, terrorism, Latin America and other 
foreign policy matters, say outside advisers and administration officials, 
including some who are rankled by his growing involvement.
Mr. Rove's influence beyond domestic affairs has developed gradually and is hard 
to measure. As one of the president's closest advisers, he offers his counsel in 
private, usually only for the president's ears.
Yet increasingly, officials in the administration see or imagine his influence, 
citing the political significance of such instances as the president's turning 
his back on free trade to offer protection to farmers or steelworkers.
Nothing is inappropriate or particularly unusual about a political adviser 
becoming immersed in foreign policy, especially as a re-election campaign 
approaches. For the first President Bush, James A. Baker III shifted from a 
purely political role to become secretary of state. But the degree of Mr. Rove's 
involvement underscores how world events have moved so much to the forefront in 
this White House, and how they have become so deeply intertwined with domestic 
policy and the demands of political constituencies.
Increasingly, administration officials say, Mr. Rove's involvement has put off 
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who is described by associates as 
questioning why someone with a background in domestic politics should be an 
important voice in foreign policy. They said Secretary Powell was not happy in 
January when Mr. Rove told the Republican Party's winter assembly in Austin, 
Tex., that the party should use Mr. Bush's handling of the war in Afghanistan 
for political advantage.
One longtime friend of Secretary Powell said he had teased the secretary by 
asking, "Who runs foreign policy, you or Rove?"
Mr. Rove declined to be interviewed for this article, writing in an e-mail 
message, "I'm not deeply involved in foreign policy!" Asked to elaborate, he 
restated in a subsequent e-mail message, "I am not deeply involved."
But speaking briefly to a reporter during a trip with President Bush several 
weeks ago, he said he had expressed opinions to the president on the Mideast 
crisis. Mr. Rove declined to discuss the issue further. 
When it came time to send an administration official to talk to a pro-Israel 
rally here, Mr. Rove met with the president and then sent Paul D. Wolfowitz, the 
deputy defense secretary and one of the administration's best-known hawks. Mr. 
Rove is said to have sided with Mr. Wolfowitz and others in urging the toughest 
position possible against Iraq.
Two months ago, he strongly argued for imposing huge tariffs on steel imported 
from Europe, Japan and China to protect steelworkers in crucial states in the 
November election  advice that carried the day. That move angered some foreign 
leaders, who are now drawing up lists of American products for retaliation, 
specifically aiming at goods made in politically crucial swing states, including 
Florida, that are important to Mr. Bush. 
In the words of one senior European official involved in those decisions, "We 
have to retaliate in ways that will get Mr. Rove's attention."
Mr. Rove was also a central player, Pentagon officials say, in the decision to 
halt American training exercises on the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico. Mr. 
Rove was concerned about alienating Latino voters, for whom Washington's 
treatment of Puerto Rico has long been a litmus test.
White House officials are extremely touchy when anyone raises questions about 
Mr. Rove's influence, and how it is exercised. Even his biggest defenders refuse 
to have their names used when they discuss how he has defined his role. They 
insist that Mr. Rove has carefully limited his role to questions of how foreign 
policy decisions are communicated and how the White House deals with domestic 
organizations  like Latino groups and the American Jewish Committee  that have 
strong interests in specific foreign policy issues.
"The president has a foreign policy team that he relies upon," said one senior 
White House official who deals often with Mr. Rove, "but he also has an 
open-door policy in which any of his senior advisers can offer a perspective, 
and that happens routinely."
The official added, "To say that there is an effort by Karl to get more 
involved, well, I haven't seen it." Other senior administration officials say 
they have seen no evidence of conflict with Condoleezza Rice, the national 
security adviser, who is known to be adamant that Mr. Bush receive his foreign 
policy advice from the group of professionals she has assembled.
But Mr. Rove's role  and sometimes the role he is imagined to play once world 
issues seep into the White House  is a subject of growing discussion in the 
State Department, the Pentagon, the trade representative's office and other 
agencies that deal with foreign policy issues that intersect domestic politics.
In the days soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, senior Pentagon officials 
say, officials were concerned that if Mr. Rove participated in meetings on the 
war in Afghanistan, it could create the impression that political considerations 
were intruding on decisions about how to deploy American troops and conduct 
military operations.
"There was a conscious decision that he would not sit in on war-related stuff," 
a senior defense official said. Mr. Rove, the official said, was involved in 
that decision and concurred with it.
But since the active stage of the war ended, Mr. Rove has been described by 
officials as playing a greater advisory role. His admirers say he is well suited 
to the task because he is a sound strategic thinker, is deeply versed in history 
and can effectively relate world affairs to Mr. Bush's political concerns at 
home. They also say his close ties to members of Congress help the White House 
move its foreign policy agenda.
"He understands where the president is on the foreign policy side as well as how 
he got there," said Representative Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican who is close 
to Mr. Bush and Mr. Rove. "That's pretty important because if you understand the 
dynamic, that's going to drive the decision-making process in a helpful way."
State Department officials are less charitable, perhaps because Mr. Rove is 
considered far more hawkish than Secretary Powell, and far more attuned to 
domestic politics.
One White House adviser who is loyal to Mr. Rove said Secretary Powell and his 
lieutenants were unfairly critical of Mr. Rove and Andrew H. Card Jr., the chief 
of staff, for injecting themselves into foreign policy.
"The Powell people are trying to delegitimize Karl and Andy as people who have 
no foreign policy experience as political hacks," the adviser said. "I'd rather 
have good people with real judgment rather than people with foreign policy 
Ph.D.'s."
One senior adviser said Mr. Rove was the first to back away from the White 
House's efforts to dissuade Congress from voting on a resolution that put the 
United States squarely in Israel's camp when Mr. Bush was talking about how 
Israel, the Palestinians and Arab states all have responsibilities for 
maintaining the peace.
White House advisers said Mr. Rove also had an important role as a contact with 
governors and members of Congress on domestic security matters, at times 
supplanting Tom Ridge, the director of domestic security.
"Karl has the best network among governors and local officials," one White House 
adviser who is close to Mr. Rove said. "He doesn't have to do battle with 
anybody, while Ridge has to pick winners and losers over turf. Karl comes in as 
an adviser."
Advisers to the White House said it was only natural that Mr. Rove would expand 
his role.
In the first Bush administration, Mr. Baker's blending of discussions of the 
thawing of the cold war with poll numbers once prompted Senator George J. 
Mitchell, then the Democratic leader, to say, "I remind the secretary that this 
is not a political campaign."
In the Carter White House, Hamilton Jordan, the president's political and 
domestic aide, took on a foreign policy portfolio. Mr. Carter ordered Zbigniew 
Brzezinski, his national security adviser, to give Mr. Jordan advance word on 
all foreign policy decisions.
In one of the most critical decisions of his presidency, Harry S. Truman 
supported the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine after strong urging 
from Clark M. Clifford, his legal counsel. George C. Marshall, the secretary of 
state, had told President Truman that recognition of Israel was such a huge 
mistake that it would keep General Marshall from voting for his boss's 
re-election.
 